Four finalists for the Montezuma-Cortez Re-1 School District superintendent position met with the public Monday at M-CHS.<\/p>\n
The candidates are interim superintendent Lori Haukeness, Durango school district health and wellness director John Marchino, Wisconsin education service agency director Joe Price and Del Norte superintendent Nathan Smith.<\/p>\n
Board of Education president Jack Schuenemeyer said the board received 12 applications for the position before narrowing the search down to four finalists. Board members will meet this month to discuss the candidates, but Schuenemeyer said they\u2019re not operating with any set deadline to seat a superintendent. He said the board will take the time to make sure it seats a superintendent that is the right fit for the district.<\/p>\n
Haukeness has served as interim superintendent since Alex Carter\u2019s resignation in January. Before Carter resigned, Haukeness worked with him closely on administrative matters, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel that I\u2019ve been instrumental in supporting our schools and teachers and would like to carry that forward,\u201d Haukeness said Monday.<\/p>\n
Haukeness has been involved with the district for 22 years, having previously served as principal at Mesa Elementary. In Carter\u2019s administration, Haukeness was assistant superintendent for curriculum and public instruction.<\/p>\n
Marchino works in the Durango School District 9-R central office and is in charge of the district\u2019s health and wellness program. He was principal of Fort Lewis Mesa Elementary School for six years, leading that school to an improvement award from the governor\u2019s office two years in a row, he said. He also was president of the Colorado Association of Elementary School Principals last year, he said.<\/p>\n
If he were seated as superintendent, he would help facilitate learning and collaboration between teachers, principals and administrators, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would need to make sure we\u2019re learning instructional practices that help student engagement and learning best practices from each other,\u201d Marchino said.<\/p>\n
Price is head of a Cooperative Educational Service Agency, or CESA, in Wisconsin, which is that state\u2019s equivalent of a BOCES organization. He previously served as a superintendent in Wisconsin for 12 years, he said. It\u2019s been a goal for Price to move west, so he watched for openings and applied in Cortez, he said.<\/p>\n
He said his focus would be on student achievement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI judge my success as an educator by increases in achievement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
As head of the CESA, Price said he works with 31 school districts and helps them look at data to address issues in their districts.<\/p>\n
Smith has been the superintendent of Del Norte School District, which has about 400 students, for five years, he said. He has experience at various levels of public instruction, having served previously as a principal and an athletic director.<\/p>\n
Finances are always an issue for school districts, Smith said. He said he would focus on academic performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will boil down to that and what we will do to help kids master skills and the curriculum here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
All four candidates said they feel the school district is on the brink of something great.<\/p>\n
Haukeness said she would help develop school technology and advocate for alternative learning programs to give students more opportunities. She pointed to Southwest Health Systems as a model, saying the company has developed an excellent system for the area. She said the district could do that, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can move forward with the district to develop community relations and make students competitive with others around the nation,\u201d Haukeness said.<\/p>\n
Marchino said the school district is poised to make some strides forward. He said the district needs to provide time for its teachers to look at data and determine what\u2019s effective.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a process of learning and looking to see if programs in the classroom are helping,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s about learning what\u2019s best for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Price said he saw the potential for the district when he took a tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s lots of potential to grow and improve,\u201d he said. \u201cWe would need to be open to suggestions and keep things on the table.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith said there are good things going on in the district. Monitoring and analysis of data would continue to be a focus if he was superintendent, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Teachers and administrators) are making decisions based on data, and that has to happen,\u201d he said. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t step in and change everything, but I would make sure those things happen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
District is on the cusp of greatness, candidates say<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[21,13,216],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-105580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-montezuma-cortez-school-district-re-1"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105580\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105580"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=105580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}